In the fields of heart valve surgery and interventional cardiology, easy handling of medical devices and the reduction of the time required to perform a surgical intervention and procedure are main topics of the medical and technological research in the field. With reference to the implantation of expandable heart valve prostheses (such as, e.g., sutureless valve prostheses), a current practice provides that a heart valve prosthesis should be stored in a sterile environment in order to maintain its integrity and also in order to prevent air from being trapped in the structure of the prosthesis. Such prostheses may also be required to be crimped (i.e., radially collapsed) and coupled to a delivery instrument in order to be delivered to an implantation site, for example, in a minimally invasive or percutaneous procedure.
Crimping an implantable medical device may present a number of important issues. While many crimping devices with different features have been devised to facilitate the crimping operation, such a step may remain rather delicate and complex to perform. One of the challenges for the practitioner when crimping an implantable medical device onto a delivery instrument lies in achieving a desired positioning, in particular, an angular positioning, of the implantable device on the crimping device. In various prior art devices, the delivery instruments are provided with angular indicia (for example, markers which are intended to identify the commissures of an aortic or tricuspid valve) intended to aid the practitioner in correctly positioning the implantable device at the implantation site. These devices, however, may involve a risk of damaging the implantable medical device as the practitioner adjusts the angular position of the implantable medical device within the crimping orifice by contacting and manipulating the implantable device directly.